Personality at Selection Interview

Assignment character Personality fanny be defined as those relatively horse barn enduring aspects of an close toone that distinguish him/her from otherwise plenty and at the aforesaid(prenominal) time trope a basis for our predictions concerning his/her future behaviour. (W unspoilt et al cited in Rollinson 2005) This definition represents the charm that it is possible to identify an separates stable and un changing soulfulnessality and characteristics, and that if the characteristics be set they sight be utilise to predict the persons future behaviour.Organisations differ greatly in their cultures and acceptable behaviours which means that some individuals naturally correspond in better than others. (Rollinson 200585) Job manipulations themselves likewise differ in terms of the suitability of an individuals character in macrocosm successful in that demarcation authority. Therefore in determine the greatness of face-to-faceity at option converse we need to keep an eye on what both the role and the ecesis accept. (Rollinson 200585) In the work surround the assemble of a person has to be right in terms of skills and take in as wellhead as values and needs. Holbeche 2002). Person-organisation raiment refers to the extent to which individuals and organisations sh are exchangeable characteristics (personalities) or accommodate each others needs. The assessment of personality is carried out to determine desirable or un-desirable traits of dissolvedidates to assess their suitability for a role and/or organisation (Arthur2005) getting this right can lead to job bliss and organisational commitment. (Kristoff2000) When an employer is recruiting the mental weight-lift has some splendor.The psychological contract implies a series of mutual expectations and satisfaction needs arising from the P-O kind (Mullins2010) P-O fit is likely to be to a greater extent of import than P-J fit in satisfying the psychological contract (Morley200 7) in that employees go out be askd to adapt to interchanges in tasks and gain new skills. It is argued that great emphasis should be placed on the P-O fit as contrary to the more traditional order of P-J fit because firstly individuals go forth think of some(prenominal) roles within an organisation in that respectfore their P-O is more important than the by chance less lexible P-J fit, they leave behind hold the organisations values and culture closer and will surrender longer service therefore lowering recruitment costs. (Ree and Earles 1992) secondly the changing nature of work requires individuals to be better at teamwork and more flexible. I believe that when recruiting graduates P-O fit is more important as impertinent to P-J fit. Graduates are recruited to provide organisations with a potential pool of future managers and conjure up succession possibilities. Morley2007) Graduates shit little produce in the work environment so are less able to translate their skills, qualifications and experience into the working world. If an employer has a clear intelligence agency of their organisations culture, personalities of other employees and can accurately determine the personalities and beliefs of the graduate they can base their end on the graduates enthusiasm, motivation and preparation to work sooner than skills, qualifications and experience.In a believe by wheel horse et al (cited in Rollinson 2005) it was ensnare that job satisfaction could be increase by increasing P-O fit, that is recruiting employees with similar values to the organisation. However, Wheeler also found that even though an ill-fitting individual resulted in job dissatisfaction, they would non drop dead the organisation unless suitable alternative work presented it egotism. This could lead to them being de-motivated, having light make outance and impact on relationships with colleagues.This shows the importance of getting personality right at choice intervie w. Person-job (P-J) fit refers to the correlation between the individuals skills, qualifications and experience with the requirements of a job. (Edwards1991) and is a traditional method of employee plectrum (Werbell and Gilliland1999) P-J fit is most widely determined through with(predicate) proof of an individuals skills, qualifications and experience through certificates and references and questioning around their fellowship on a topic.I bring in personally heard colleagues question the importance of personality on some roles such as cypherants which would initially strike you as being leaden heavily on their skills, experience and qualifications however how well would an accountant perform if they did not overhear the personality traits to communicate put inively with colleagues and clients? Differing roles do also require different personalities in society to be successful no matter of the organisation. Receptionists, sales person or customer service representative requ ire the ability to hump with stress and deal with individuals with differing priorities. Gatewood et al2005) In conceptualiseing the importance of personality in selection interview it would be sensible to consider how stable and unchanging a persons personality is. argon we seeing a current snapshot of the individuals personality or will it change overtime? Rollinson (2005) writes that if personality is an ongoing developing forge it would be almost impossible to develop valid way of lifes to quantity it and would be pointless in attempting to predict future behaviour.Idiographic, one of the two major theories on personality, focuses on personality developing and changing as a result of ongoing experiences. However, Costa and McCrae (1992) wrote that personality is relatively stable later on the age of 30 therefore exploitation personality in devising selection decisions would be possible due to the stability of personality. Looking at Nomotheic theory, the other of the tw o major theories of personality, which befools personality is stable and un-changing, it was noted that there are 5 distinct differences between people known as the Big Five and ofttimes referred to as OCEAN.These are Openness (perceptive, sophisticated, knowledgeable, cultured, artistic, curious, analytical, grownup traits) Conscientiousness (practical, cautious, serious, reliable, organised, careful, dependable, hard-working, ambitious traits) Extraversion (sociable, talkative, active, spontaneous, adventurous, person-orientated, assertive traits) Agreeableness (warm, trustful, courteous, agreeable, cooperative traits) neurosis ( horny, anxious, depressive, self-conscious, worrying traits) The Big Five can be split into pillowcase theory and trait theory.Mullins cites Hans Eyesneck work in which he identified quartette main personality lineaments. These are stable extraverts,(talkative, responsive, easygoing, lively carefree) unstable extraverts,(impulsive, changeable, excitable, restless) stable introverts (calm, even-tempered, peaceful, thoughtful) and unstable introverts. (anxious, moody, reserved, pessimistic) Mullins writes that if managers can predict future behaviours through an individuals personality type therefore it is not surprising that psychometric tests to measure personality are growing in popularity.Trait theory is then broken tear down again into surface traits (those which are observable) and source traits (which can only be inferred) In theory surface traits could be observe through assessment centres. Mullins writes that the Big Five form the basis of regular personality questionnaires and of these five painstakingness has the highest link with high levels of job knowledge and surgery across a range of occupations.So, according to this, it would be in effect(p) to an organisation to determine candidates personality in order to recruit an individual who has a good score in conscientiousness. However, Maltby et al (2010) w rites that if we were to employ the conscientious person with their practical, cautious, serious, reliable, organized, careful, dependable, hard-working and ambitious traits, would they be suitable for a role requiring innovation and creativity and are they flexible and adaptable to cope with the rapidly changing world of work?He questions the applicability of conscientiousness across all job roles. In considering the impact of personality on our relationship at work with colleagues I believe that emotional intuition has a strong link with aligning personality with successful performance and relationships at work. Emotional Intelligence is defined as a persons ability to manage themselves as well as their relationship with others so that they can live their intentions (Adele20087) and can be broken down into five specific areas.These are self-importance awareness, empathy, sociable expertness, personal sour and mastery of procedure and vision. Each of these areas could consent an impact on our relationships with colleagues. self-importance awareness is an spirit of how our behaviours or words affect others. If we have self awareness we are able to apply self control to change our actions should they be having a negative effect on colleagues. A self aware individual would know when their mood is impacting on others and alter it accordingly.Self awareness is an area looked for in the emotional intelligence of sales people and interview questioning ground around the impact of previous experience of their positive and negative impacts on co-workers would be useful in identifying this area. (Adele 200817) Empathy is an understanding of others feelings and perspective and the ability to experience what somebody else is feeling therefore big(a) a better understanding of our colleagues. It is the ability to respectfully listen preferably than listening to refute or build our own case.A customer service representative who empathises with an irate customer rath er than just demanding their account number will better diffuse a volatile situation. (Adele 200854) marshall Goldsmith (The world authority in wait oning successful leadership get even better) described not listening as the most passive-aggressive form of disrespect shown to colleagues. Social expertness is the building of social bonds which allow us to work with others, share thoughts and ideas, build trust and solvent conflict. The reason that top executives fail is because of their failure to build interpersonal relationships rather than their technical competence.Personal influence is our ability to influence other towards goals or missions and to influence ourselves in taking initiative and displaying confidence. A recruiting manager would be smell for signs at interview that a candidate can exhibit they have got people to previously follow them irrespective of their differing levels. Mastery of purpose and vision is our ability to understand what our purpose is and the refore determine what types of emotions swear out us to live our life purpose. It allows us to manage our emotions and relationships.This is also the determining factor as to whether the institution and role is fit for us. Interview questions ground around a candidates worst and ideal job as well as what inspires and bores them at work can help identify the fit of an individuals personal purpose to an organization. (Adele2008131) Candidates demonstrating emotional intelligence at interview take responsibility for their actions rather than blaming others or playing the victim. (Adele2008146) Studies carried out by Grimsley and Jarrett (cited in Adele2008) concluded that managers displaying higher emotional intelligence were more successful.Anderson and Shackleton (1993) carried out a study on the affinity of the strength of different variables in predicting eventual job performance at the point of selection. Their findings show that personality assessments have a 0. 38 correlatio n, intelligence a 0. 54 correlation, and structured interview 0. 62. Previous experience and the CV came in lower than all these at 0. 18 and 0. 37 respectively. (0. 1 being small, 0. 3 being medium and 0. 5 being prominent correlation) Showing in this study that personality assessment has an important role in predicting job performance, above that of the CV and previous experience. Maltby et al 2010) When displace the theory of personality into practice within the work environment, organisations must be clear on why they are assessing personality and what personality characteristics they are they are looking for. (Torrington et al2011) A clear job exposition and person specification which requires skills, qualifications, experience and personality traits relevant to the job role is key, according to the CIPD, in creating a fair selection process.Should an applicant who is done for(predicate) in being selected for interview threaten or indeed bugger off royal court proceedings , the organization has a clear framework on how selection for interview and employment was made. Torrington et al also write that a method of defining the person specification is to focus on the characteristics or competences of individuals who have previously performed trump in the role. This has positives in that these characteristics are producing individuals who perform well for the business however this method could produce employees who are very similar to one another and address problems with the same mindset.Personality questionnaires are based on the Nomotheic theory that personality is stable and unchanging. The most recognized personality questionnaire is the Myers Biggs Type Indicator (MBTI) based on the theories of Carl Jung. The questionnaire is developed on the understanding that it is of benefit to people to recognise their individual personality types, and how these differ from those of other individuals. The MBTI is an untimed questionnaire which asks respondents to choose between two opposing courses of action, or two words, depending on what they feel is closest to their natural preference.The MBTI measures 4 preferences Extraversion or Introversion, spying or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling and Judging or Perceiving. deals four preferences classify them into one of 16 types. Descriptions are expiren of the characteristics of people of each of the 16 types. Each type is described as having positive qualities and strengths, as well as possible development needs. The questionnaire receives 4 stars from the psychological testing centre. (The British Psychological Society2011) An employer using MBTI can use the information given on the individuals type to further question them at selection interview.Toplis et al (1997) have concerns that the pretermit of involvement of psychologists in marketing and selling personality testing packages results in too many tests being released for general use without the required mind support. He is also tr oubled by the increasing use of computer-based tests, peculiarly to score and interpret results, believing that the accuracy of some systems is not peculiarly high. Personality assessment is based on the belief that certain roles require particular personality and that tests can identify them.The use of ability tests and competence based interviewing as opposed to personality tests are more good defendable in an employment tribunal due to the tangible results being right or wrong whereas with personality tests there are no right or wrong answers and are not as easily defendable should the need arise. There are questions over their validity in so much as practitioners can be trained with a basic knowledge of administering tests and interpreting their results. The British Psychology Society give an overall rating for validity and objectivity of tests.There is the argument that candidates whitethorn be able to manipulate their results to perform in a way they believe the employer r equires. (Furnham1990) therefore invalidating the results and potentially basing a recruitment decision on in-accurate information. In my experience this is where the face to face interview is of vale in verifying and questioning further the results of any personality testing. i. e. Do the results of the personality testing match the behaviours and characteristics of the person sat in front end of me? Recruiters may be influenced by striking characteristics or similarities to themselves called the closed chain Effect.The Halo Effect can be defined as a cognitive bias whereby the perception of one trait (i. e. a characteristic of a person or object) is influenced by the perception of another trait (or several traits) of that person or object. (Mullins 2011) An example would be judging a better-looking person as more intelligent. The Halo Effect can have a positive or negative effect. For example, someone who attended the same college or university as the recruiter could be at an a dvantage but someone who attended a college or university the interviewer perceives to have a poor account could put the candidate at a dis-advantage.Solomon Asch (1945) carried out a study that discovered that the presence of one trait often implies the existence of other additional traits and that certain traits can be characterized as central traits. For example, an individual described as warm is perceived to have positive traits such as euphoric and generous. An individual described as the cold would have the opposite perceived traits. Another example is when individuals believe that a happy person is also friendly or that quiet people are timid. On the other hand, people who are irritable may be seen as in disarray in their daily life.Therefore, people assume other individuals personalities are in doubt using little information. It is often the case that people judge more favourably those individuals with whom they have something in common. An audition carried out at the Pe nn State College of Medicine asked 35 interviewers and cxxxv interviewees to complete the MBTI. The results were not shared prior to face to face interview. The experiment concluded that there was a significant association between similarities in personality type and the rankings that individual interviewers assigned to each interviewee.In this considerateness it is important to be mindful of the effect an individuals personality may have on the outcome of the interview. Employing more than one selection tool does not eradicate the possibility of recruiting an unsuitable candidates. The use of personality data in the selection process, when gathered appropriately, can be valid information in making a contribution to the selection decision however it should not be used in isolation. Personality tests results can be used at interview for the basis of further investigation into applicant abilities.Skills, experience and qualifications are important criterion. Dependent on the role and organisation for which selection is being made will determine the weighting placed on each. If using any form of testing in the selection process employers need to pre-determine the worth of testing and weigh up the benefits, such as increased productivity, with the cost including purchasing a reliable and validated imagination and training recruiting managers to correctly interpret reports.There is, therefore, in my opinion an importance to be placed on personality at selection interview which for me slightly outweighs the importance of skills, qualifications and experience especially when considering the knock on effect that a mismatch of person-job or person-organisation could have on the relationship with colleagues. An organization needs to be clear in what personality traits they are looking for before even advertising a role as the word of an advertisement could attract and alienate certain personalities.Once at selection interview, managers should consider how they are fai rly going to assess personality if using their own judgment. Do they have a fail safe scoring system to measure personality against that cannot back-fire in the event of an employment tribunal? Thought should also be given to how a candidate has undefiled any personality test i. e. to what extent have they thought more or less themselves in the work situation when completing it? Are they naturally sickening when asked to complete any test and therefore put at a dis-advantage? If personality is un-stable and changes over time, would it be wise to re-test individuals?Organisations are fluid and changing constantly. Teams, managers and individuals change. , What was once a good fit may not be in the future. References Adele, B (2008) The EQ Interview. AMACOM Books Anderson, N. D. Shackleton, V. J (1993) Successful selection interviewing. Blackwell publishing Arthur, D. (2005) Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting and Orienting fresh Employees. quaternate ed. New York AMACOM pagina te 368 British Psychological Society (2011) found at http//www. psychtesting. org. uk/test-registration-and-test-reviews/test-reviews. cfm? page=summary=82CIPD (2011) option Factsheet (online) available from http//www. cipd. co. uk/hr-resources/factsheets/selection-methods. aspx Costa, P. T, McCrae, R. R (1992) Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 13, No. 6. (June 1992), pp. 653-665 Edenborough, R. (2005) Assessment methods in recruitment, selection and performance a managers guide to psychometric testing, interviews and assessment centres. London Kogan Page. Page 2 Edwards, J. R. (1991). Person-job fit A conceptual integration, literature review, and methodological critique.In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds. ), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (vol. 6, pp. 283-357). New York Wiley. Furnham, A (1990) Can people accurately estimate their own personality test scores? European Journal of Personality, no 4, pp. 319-327 Gatewood, RD. Field, HS. Human option Selection 5th ed. Mike Roche. Page 601-603 Holbeche, L. (2002) Aligning Human Resources and patronage Strategy. second ed. Butterworth Heinemann. IRS Employment Survey July 2010 accessed through employer login at www. xperthr. co. uk Kelly, G. A. (1955).The psychology of personal constructs (Vols. 1 and 2). New York Norton. Kristof-Brown, AL. (2000) Perceived applicant fit Distinguishing between recruiters perceptions of person-job fit and person organization fit. In Personnel Psychology, 53 (4), 643-671 Maltby, J. Day,L . Macaskill, A. (2010) Personality, Individual Differences And Intelligence. 9th ed. apprentice Hall. Michael J. Morley, (2007) Person-organization fit, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 22 Iss 2, pp. 109 117. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. Mullins, LJ. (2011) charge and Organisational Behaviour. th ed. financial Times Prentice Hall. Page 134 162, 240 Rees, MJ. Earles JA (1992) Intelligence is the best pre dictor of job performance. Psychological Science, 1, 86-89. Rollinson, D. (2005) Organisational Behaviour and Analysis An integrated cost 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall Asch, S. E. Studies in the principles of judgments and attitudes II. Determination of judgments by assembly and by ego standards. /. soc. Psychol. , 1940, 12, 433465. Thorndike, E. L. (1920). A constant error on psychological rating. Journal of Applied Psychology, IV, 25-29 Toplis, J. Dulewicz, V.Fletcher, C (2004) Psychological testing a managers guide. 4th Ed. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Torrington, D. Taylor, S. Hall, L. Atkinson, C (2011) Human Resources Management. 8th ed. Financial Times Prentice Hall Werbel, J and Gilliland, S. W (1999). Person-environment fit in the selection process. In G. R. Ferris (Ed. ) Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 17, 209-243 Wheeler, A. Gallagher, V. Brouer, R, Sablynski, C. When person-organisation (mis) fit and (dis) satisfaction lead to turnove r. In Person Organisation Fit 2nd ed. By Morley, M. London Emerald, Page 203.